A month ago I was privileged to attend the launch of Alice Wairimu Nderitu’s book on national cohesion and integration, Kenya, Bridging Ethnic Divides. Ms Nderitu was a founding Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), and before and since she has enjoyed a distinguished career promoting the cause of cohesion and integration, […]
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The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches (available at Text Book Centre and maybe elsewhere locally) reproduces a fascinating collection of speeches that have influenced history, and today I write about two among them. The first, delivered in 1960 to the South African Parliament by then British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, was about the “winds of […]
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My first leadership experience came when I arrived in Kenya in 1977 to be the general manager of the local subsidiary of a multinational IT company. Both the Kenyans who reported to me and the Brits to whom I reported expected me to be the proverbial “Big Man”, perceived as all-knowing, all-wise and all-powerful. And […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2018-04-11 08:05:462018-04-12 08:07:50Influence, not power yields better output from employees
I was in London last month at the time when snow covered the city, to work on a leadership programme with the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). One of those with me carried a wonderful book that I then also bought, The Greats on Leadership by Jocelyn Davis. In it Mr Davis offers […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2018-03-28 08:08:442018-04-12 08:11:48Kind of leadership needed to deal with a crisis effectively
You and I undertake customer journeys every day. Some are more or less fine throughout, and some have their ups and downs; some are consistently outstanding and some are the opposite, while with yet others it’s as though it depends on what those with whom you interact ate for breakfast that day. As I reflect […]
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Several times a week, as I drive towards Westlands and beyond, I exit from James Gichuru Road and circle the oval onto Waiyaki Way. It is obvious we should keep to the right-hand lane on James Gichuru, awaiting a gap in the traffic driving west so we can line up for the U-turn that will […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2018-02-14 08:14:082018-02-15 08:18:06The trouble with Kenya’s long list of neglected values
In much of my management consulting I help organisations clarify their values, and this is often the most interesting and challenging aspect of my work. Almost all my clients have an existing bundle of “core values” (I’ve never seen the need for the “core”), but few pay much attention to them — even if they […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2018-01-31 07:58:262018-02-08 08:03:53Look at your ‘core values’ once more for urgent rework
In May 2016 I attended a Trump rally in Anaheim, California. I was visiting my daughter and her family, and I was curious to observe this emerging populist phenomenon up close and live. His campaign had built its strategy around such events, attract huge crowds and creating a political wave the Democrats were failing to […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2018-01-17 07:52:502018-02-08 08:08:56What Trump letters say about President
My sister’s Christmas present to me when she came from London was David Goodhart’s new book, The Road to Somewhere. I’d never heard of Goodhart, but I am an admirer of the thoughtful Prospect magazine of which he was the founder editor. (Whenever I fly with British Airways I find a copy on board, and […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2018-01-05 10:12:502018-02-08 08:08:55Kenya must entrench basic skills to plug unemployment gap
There’s still so much gloomy, pessimistic talk about how difficult it is for women to rise to the highest levels of leadership, but I wish there would be less of this poor-us mentality. Not because I am a chauvinist. No, it is for the opposite reason: it is because what I see all around me […]
https://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/mikeeldon02_280.jpg404280adminhttp://mike-eldon.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/logo.pngadmin2017-12-20 07:46:532018-02-08 08:08:26Hooray! Glass ceiling has been breaking
Martin Oduor, The Humanized LeaderDecember 23, 2025 - 5:49 pm
NCIC does more work than what comes to surface
A month ago I was privileged to attend the launch of Alice Wairimu Nderitu’s book on national cohesion and integration, Kenya, Bridging Ethnic Divides. Ms Nderitu was a founding Commissioner of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), and before and since she has enjoyed a distinguished career promoting the cause of cohesion and integration, […]
My selection of speeches that shaped history
The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches (available at Text Book Centre and maybe elsewhere locally) reproduces a fascinating collection of speeches that have influenced history, and today I write about two among them. The first, delivered in 1960 to the South African Parliament by then British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, was about the “winds of […]
Influence, not power yields better output from employees
My first leadership experience came when I arrived in Kenya in 1977 to be the general manager of the local subsidiary of a multinational IT company. Both the Kenyans who reported to me and the Brits to whom I reported expected me to be the proverbial “Big Man”, perceived as all-knowing, all-wise and all-powerful. And […]
Kind of leadership needed to deal with a crisis effectively
I was in London last month at the time when snow covered the city, to work on a leadership programme with the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR). One of those with me carried a wonderful book that I then also bought, The Greats on Leadership by Jocelyn Davis. In it Mr Davis offers […]
Customer service steps that turn SMEs into giants
You and I undertake customer journeys every day. Some are more or less fine throughout, and some have their ups and downs; some are consistently outstanding and some are the opposite, while with yet others it’s as though it depends on what those with whom you interact ate for breakfast that day. As I reflect […]
The trouble with Kenya’s long list of neglected values
Several times a week, as I drive towards Westlands and beyond, I exit from James Gichuru Road and circle the oval onto Waiyaki Way. It is obvious we should keep to the right-hand lane on James Gichuru, awaiting a gap in the traffic driving west so we can line up for the U-turn that will […]
Look at your ‘core values’ once more for urgent rework
In much of my management consulting I help organisations clarify their values, and this is often the most interesting and challenging aspect of my work. Almost all my clients have an existing bundle of “core values” (I’ve never seen the need for the “core”), but few pay much attention to them — even if they […]
What Trump letters say about President
In May 2016 I attended a Trump rally in Anaheim, California. I was visiting my daughter and her family, and I was curious to observe this emerging populist phenomenon up close and live. His campaign had built its strategy around such events, attract huge crowds and creating a political wave the Democrats were failing to […]
Kenya must entrench basic skills to plug unemployment gap
My sister’s Christmas present to me when she came from London was David Goodhart’s new book, The Road to Somewhere. I’d never heard of Goodhart, but I am an admirer of the thoughtful Prospect magazine of which he was the founder editor. (Whenever I fly with British Airways I find a copy on board, and […]
Hooray! Glass ceiling has been breaking
There’s still so much gloomy, pessimistic talk about how difficult it is for women to rise to the highest levels of leadership, but I wish there would be less of this poor-us mentality. Not because I am a chauvinist. No, it is for the opposite reason: it is because what I see all around me […]